Clever kea in spotlight
Kea may cause humans headaches with the damage they cause but could they experience human emotions themselves?
That’s a question academics hope to answer as part of a study looking at the evolution and function of joy in intelligent species.
“Many New Zealanders will be familiar with the kea as cheeky and destructive, but few will realise how remarkably intelligent they are,” said University of Canterbury Associate Professor Ximena Nelson, who is leading the research with the University of Auckland’s Dr Alex Taylor.
The kea, the world’s only alpine parrot, is well known for its social attributes.
“Their cognitive ability is similar or better than many primate species, or humans up to the age of 4,” Nelson said. The kea’s fledglings are raised by the adults in “creches” and they can play and roll around like children.
Researchers could identify a playful joy in the species through the social aspects of their behaviours, she said.
“We found that kea have a particular and rare type of call — a warble call — that can lead them to start playing, kicking stones and dancing about. They get excited — it’s like laughter, an emotional contagion, which suggests some kind of emotional underpinning in this species.”
Nelson said the kea’s behaviour may have developed because of the lack of a historic predator, which gave it time for playful behaviour.
Nelson and Taylor’s research project, Joyful By Nature, is funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. — Valerie Tan